The Future Of Love (book 1)

desert

"Bethany! Bethany! please wake up Bethany" I heard and I felt hands gently run through my curly hair. my eyes slowly flickered open to see that my head was on a very dirty faced Patrick's lap.

"here." he said and lifted my head up a little and held a clear plastic bottle to my lips. I took a big gulp and looked around to see Patrick had two large black backpacks sitting beside him.

I slowly sat up and looked around to see that we were on the outside of the closed black gates that glared in the sun making my eyes hurt.

" where did you get those?" I asked with a hoarse voice from yelling as I motioned to the back packs.

"they were waiting on the outside of the wall for us." he said.

" how sweet of them." I said dryly.

"are you okay to stand?" Patrick asked me and I nodded and he helped me to my feet. he picked up both backpacks and slung one over each shoulder. our once white clothes were caked with dirt and ripped. I ran my fingers through my now matted curly hair as I tried to comb all the small dried sticks and dirt out of it, but my fingers only got tangled in it.

"where are we going?" I asked Patrick after a minute of just walking straight into the desert so much I couldn't see the gate anymore.

"I don't know." he shrugged. "maybe well come up on something or someone." he said. I looked around at the wasteland knowing there probably wasn't anything out here, but I didn't want yo burst his bubble. he was right, this was a wasteland. maybe the middle world was just a fairytale like Peter Pan, or Santa Clause. maybe he still knew this too and didn't want to burst my bubble either, but one look out here told us all we needed to know.

"I'm sorry." I said after another very long silence.

"for what? you have nothing to be sorry over. they would of done this no matter what we chose." he said

"I'm sorry my body doesn't work right," I said looking down at my feet as I walked.

"you know that's not your fault, it could of very well of been anyone, even me. If my body caused us to be in this mess would you blame me?" he asked and I shook my head.

"what did you think when you first saw me?" he asked with a slight smile.

"run" I answered with a laugh.

"would you still tell yourself to run knowing if you had all this as your kingdom to run to?" he now laughed he threw his hands up as if presenting the orange sandy desert to me.

"no, but I'm still stuck here anyway aren't I?" I asked.

"guess your right, you should of ran" he smirked. the sun beat down on us and we had just begun to sweat.

"what did you think when you first saw me?" I asked.

"I thought 'at least I would be taking these vows truthfully'. you know when your a kid, I think especially the girls, how you hear stories of love at first sight with their match?" he asked me.

"don't even say it." I laughed

"that's what I thought." he said.

"what about now?" I asked.

"well I'm carting around both of our backpacks in the desert, aren't I?" he asked pushing back the now sweat covered bangs that hung in in his eyes.

I took a backpack off his shoulder and slung it over mine.

"hey, I was trying to do my husbandly duties." he protested.

"like you said last night, rules don't really work for us now, especially not out here." I said.

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the sun began to set as a large dead cork tree with gnarled branches came into view. Patrick and I sat underneath it and he dug through the back packs.

"I found a lighter!" he said surprised.

"what the hell is a lighter? does it make light?" I asked.

"well, kind of, it actually makes fire." he said.

"well I'm exited for you" I said sarcastically as I shivered.

"we can make a fire with it, my brothers found one in my dads things one time and went outside and sat things on fire until he caught them." he explained. he took sonething else out of the back pack, except this object was a lot larger and it was accompanied by a piece of paper with pictures.

"here the directions says its a tent, you pitch the tent and I make and light a fire. He was now standing up and breaking the dead hanging limbs off the tree we were under.

"shouldn't I be lighting the fire and you be pitching the tent?" I joked making him burst into laughter. I worked onto the tent and looked at the pictures as I worked.

"got it!" he said as I turned around to look at the roaring fire.

"me too?" I said and we both looked at my slightly saggy tent, it looked very saddened to be in this desert too. I looked at Patrick who just shrugged. he opened another back pack and pulled out a plastic pouch of long meaty things that read 'hot dogs' on the front.

"what's that?" I asked as he opened them.

"food?" he shrugged and smelled them.

"are you sure?" I asked.

"one way to find out" he said and I watched him as he picked up a stick and pierced this hot dog with it and stuck it over the open flame for a minute then bit into it and chewed it slowly.

"yeah, its food" he nodded then held the stick with the hot dog on the end right up to my face. "bite?" he offered and I backed away from it.

"its on a dirty stick." I said then a thought struck me.

"wait! I have extra metal poles left over from the tent! I exclaimed happily and herd him laughing as I went to retrieve them.

"what?" I asked making his laughter stop as I skewered the hot dog with the spare pole.

"nothing." he said then burst into laughter again as I held the hotdog over the fire.

"why are you laughing?" I asked innocently not understanding.

" that's just such a great Idea, that's all" he said smiling at me.

"thank you!" I smiled back.

"your food is on fire." he said pointing to my flaming hot dog. I pulled it off the fire quickly and blew the flames out making him chuckle at me.

"don't laugh at me, I'm the one who's supposed to know how to cook." I said checking out my slightly charred food. I took a bite of it and decided it didn't taste that bad.

"let's head to bed, I'm beat from all that walking" Patrick said and I agreed.

hey guys! leave a vote and/or comment if you enjoyed also I started on a new book called 'Kay' so if you like this check it out!